New heart...and a new baby brother

AS BRAVE toddler Laurie Johnson gives newborn Kit a cuddle, his parents know it is nothing short of a miracle.

- By Lucy Laing

Laurie is only alive to meet his baby brother thanks to the lifesaving gift of a new heart.

As he battled for life, waiting for one to be donated, doctors warned his parents finding it would be as rare as "hen's teeth". He was one of the youngest babies ever to be kept alive on a Berlin Heart machine while waiting for a transplant donor to be found.

But against all the odds he received his lifesaving gift - and was able to meet Kit, who was born in June.

His relieved mother, Holly, 33, said: "We never truly thought it was going to happen. We were terrified for him but we knew it was his only chance of survival.

"To find him a new heart when he was so small was an absolute miracle. And now to watch him with his baby brother is wonderful. He adores him."